Filling a need in a time of loss

Habitat for Humanity stepped in and helped provide homes for those who lost theirs

ERIN McCRACKEN / Courier & Press
Alysscia Cooper, 5, plays at the end of the cul-de-sac on Inspiration Drive in the New Haven Subdivision on Oct. 21. Alysscia and her family were not victims of tornado but lost their home in a fire.

In the early morning of Nov. 6, 2005, residents of Vanderburgh, Warrick and Spencer counties were awakened by a devastating tornado that ripped through Evansville's East Side. The F3 tornado destroyed homes, a church and a race track along with other pieces of the city that got in its way.

One of the hardest-hit areas was the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park located on Indian Bend. At Eastbrook, 21 lives were lost and about 110 homes were either damaged or destroyed.

The misfortune that happened at Eastbrook aroused a call for humanitarians to help out in the disaster relief. Evansville's Habitat for Humanity had its first major project, and the New Haven subdivision was built out of need for the residents of Eastbrook who had lost their homes.

"A few days after the tornado hit, our board came together and decided to help those families," said Lydia Johnson, community relations director for Habitat for Humanity of Evansville.

"That's when we started thinking about a development specifically for those families."

According to the National Weather Services weather forecast office, peak wind speeds of the storm were about 200 mph. It was the deadliest tornado (at the time) since 1999 and the deadliest tornado in Indiana since 1974.

"The results of the investigation indicate manufactured housing can have the ability to resist code design wind speeds, but improvements are needed in the realm of tie-down bracing for racking and shear force," according to the Tornado Report put out by the National Weather Services on May 30, 2006.

Habitat provided comfort for those families that moved into New Haven that they will never be living in a home that can't resist Evansville weather.

New Haven, which is on the Evansville's East Side, consists of 55 homes.

Of the people who live in those 55 homes, "about 40 families were affected by the tornado. The rest are traditional Habitat families," Johnson said.

New Haven began construction in 2007.

"We dedicated the last home in December of 2009," Johnson said.

Although construction didn't begin until two years after the tornado struck, it was obvious that there was still a need for housing for families that lost their homes in Eastbrook.

Through the loss of so many homes in Eastbrook, the community as a whole saw the need to house these people in need.

"The whole community came together in an effort to help those families that were affected by the tornado," said Johnson.

"It really took everyone pitching in, from the anonymous donors, to the builders who came out to build the home, to all the volunteers that came out to help build. It took literally hundreds of people coming together to help New Haven get off the ground."

An anonymous donor helped purchase the land that New Haven now sits on, and the rest was done by the community and the survivors from Eastbrook.

The survivors didn't automatically get a home in New Haven because of the loss of their homes in Eastbrook.

"Families can't choose their lot until they've logged hours of sweat equity," Johnson said. Sweat equity is earned through building homes of other families or if you're unable to do manual labor, your sweat equity can be earned through working in the Habitat for Humanity office.

"We want to stress that these families purchase these homes. In order to qualify, the families have to have a need for housing, they have to be willing to contribute 300 hours of sweat equity and have to have the ability to pay their mortgage," Johnson said.

The mortgage is a 25 year-, no-interest loan that is received through Habitat for Humanity.

"Our mission is to provide homeownership opportunities for families in need," Johnson said.